Been quite a while, time for an update...
RE: the wheels above, I have stopped looking at them and guess what, they don't bother me!
I've really been enjoying this vehicle. It's overkill for my short daily commute, but we all enjoy riding in it, and all the amenities, incl the sound system. It's been great for a couple vacations to the beach (other than my obsession with trying to keep the sand out of it), the third row has been very useful on occasion (soccer games, grandparents riding along to dinner, etc). We managed to pack it to the brim coming back from xmas, the kids got way too many toys. Even had their little pedal bikes in there.
Of note:
I am seeing a little bit of extra wear on the outside edges of front tires, I see that documented by others here. If I can find a reasonable alignment adjustment I will try to remove some toe-in, otherwise it likely will add expense over just replacing the tires a wee bit earlier. I see some solid info here pointing to .02 of toe, not the higher spec from BMW.
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I do have one niggling issue with the TPMS giving a "malfunction error" sporadically. I have gone weeks without an error, and other times it triggers non-stop like on a long highway trip. Each time its like a brand new error, it displays for ~10 secs, then disappears like it never existed. Until it reoccurs. It does not seem to be related to outdoor temp, but possibly occurs more when tires heat up on longer trips. Keeping tires spot on for PSI, or after a couple months when they are all low 2 lbs, doesn't seem to matter.
The dealer has looked into this twice for me, with no change. They did not see any codes at all, which is what any low batteries in the 4 wheel sensors would produce. Of course they couldn't reproduce it, but they replaced the entire TPMS module anyway (under factory warranty) and coded the car, which took hours. Error kept occurring. The second time they looked at it, they did nothing and indicated that it might be a shorting wire which would not be covered under my CPO warranty, and they said they didn't think I wanted to pay for them to tear apart a bunch of stuff looking for it. Well they are not the ones who had to spend 50% of a 3 hour drive listening to the warning chime and watching the blinking dash light the following week. Grrr.
My smart uncle told me to try lowering / raising the tire pressures one at a time for a day or two to see if I can trigger it or stop it, but I haven't had the ambition to do this since the error is not impacting me all that much normally.
Any other ideas would be appreciated.
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In an earlier post I mentioned I hadn't seen any oil usage whatsoever. And that remained true right up until last week, when the iDrive showed down 1 qt. The level displayed was exactly at the Minimum mark of the range. This leads me to wonder if the display can even show increments, or if it just jumps all the way to 1 qt low. I think my mileage is almost 39k now; I will see what it was when the dealer did the last oil change and list it here for reference for this oil usage. I know it was almost a year ago, guessing it has been ~6k miles. I can add a quart a year without bitching whatsoever.
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I have the dealer adjust the rear hatch for creaking every time I am in there, the last one seems to be keeping it quiet for a couple months.
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My dealer has been top notch in past years, but I wonder if they are losing their edge. The vehicle was in for the TPMS before xmas, and a day AFTER I picked it up I got an email from BMW listing three other items the service computer called for. Why would they not tell me while they had the vehicle in their shop, and take care of this stuff then?? Annoying. Bringing it in for one or several days is always a hassle. Anyway they listed the following as needed or needed soon:
- Micro Filters for cabin ($225)
- Brake fluid flush ($135)
- Rear brake pads & rotors due in a couple thousand miles ($800)
Purchased micro filterS (yes two of them) from the dealer (used club discount) and threw those in. Cost ~$70 and took under 5 mins.
I will do the brake fluid flush at my buddy's garage - he has a lift! So whatever the fluid costs plus a 6-pack of brew.
I also will do the rear brakes myself, currently price shopping the OE stuff from dealer (discount again) vs getting similar OE parts online from Pelican or other (expecting to pay ~370 depending).
The above illustrates the reduced cost of ownership with some moderate maintenance skills.
That's it - no other issues. Been loving the beast and everything it does. Go 5-0 !!
Cheers, Todd